Tag: Performance

3 October 1998

Club Beige and Sneakers

Saturday, 3 October, 1998, 9 p.m. – 4 a.m.: Hoshimoto/musictoerist: Michael Raedecker/ Geerten Verheus (NL), Dick Donkey’s Dawn: Georgina Starr, Sean Dower and Oliver Hangl (GB/A), Wouter van Riessen (NL), Susi Pop (D): Hermoine Zittlau, 3 Pussy Kisses: Anja Czioska, Birgit Adolf and Andrea Wünsche (D) , Lowest Expectations: Angus Fairhurst, Andrew Hale, Adam McEwen (GB) and Nicole Hackert (D), Annika Ström (S), Owada: Martin Creed, Adam McEwen and Keiko Owada (GB), Bob & Roberta Smith (GB), Pony: Georgina Starr and Oliver Hangl (A), Max Mohr/ Kalaman (D), DJ Sid: Sidney Stucki (CH).

At WMF: VJs Micha Klein (NL), Daniëlle Kwaaitaal (NL); at INIT: hoshimoto/

musictoerist: Michael Raedecker/Geerten Verheus (NL) (2 October).

As a performance event parallel to the Berlin Art Fair (European Art Forum) and the opening days of the first Berlin Biennale ‘Beige and Sneakers’ was the counterpart to the exhibition ‘Standort Berlin – places to stay # 5 M(usic)’ staging performances transitory between art and music.

Featuring visual artists who use music in performance, bands, solo projects and DJs covering the range from Pop to Punk, Trash, Techno and Chanson. Wouter van Riessens introduction on the acoustic guitar carried on a singer/songwriter tradition still in practice; DJs hoshimoto/musictoerist – Michael Raedecker/Geerten Verheus – present ambient music mixed with samples from the history of mainstream pop, like they did the night before at the INIT Club. Dick Donkey’s Dawn and Pony were the band names featuring the artists, Georgina Starr and Sean Dower, together with Oliver Hangl performing in pop fashion.

The 3 Pussy Kisses, an all-girl band, promoted ‘Pussy-Pop-Trash,’ where as Lowest Expectations, artist Angus Fairhurst’s formation, staged a performance presenting a complex and disturbing layering of samples from the ‘Top Ten Charts’. Annika Ström highlighted the emotional redundancy of the classical love song in her solo-performance, while Owada condensed features of rock/pop concerts in their dialogue with the audience. Bob & Roberta Smith presented ‘Bob Smith’s One-Man Band’ equipped with HiHat, guitar, cazoo and a cardboard box as bass drum.

DJ performances by artists Max Mohr and Kalaman with their live mix of unusual samples led to DJ Sid’s funky techno set lucidly demonstrating the thrill of interaction between the artist and the dance floor audience. At WMF: Pop-Visuals, produced by artists and video-jockeys, Micha Klein and Danielle Kwaaitaal.

This event was produced in collaboration with Akademie der Künste, WMF and INIT.

30 September through 28 January 1999: Rineke Dijstra (NL), Lothar Hempel (D), Jaap Kroneman (NL), Bob & Roberta Smith (GB), Sidney Stucki (CH), Rirkrit Tiravanija (USA) and billboard: Felix Gonzales-Torres.

International art and its involvement with music in everyday culture was observed as a present phenomen of the cultural status quo. Pop music and its influence on everyday life had became a major topic for contemporary artists who have approached the question in a very individual manner which has since led to a renewed questioning of institutional structures. BüroFriedrich presented six different positions.

The artists approached the meaning and relevance of (pop) music in our daily lives. Rineke Dijkstra presented a first rough-cut of a new video installation: portraits of Berlin nightlife at WMF, one of the most influential clubs in post-wall Berlin. Lothar Hempel’s installation in one of the large windows of the pavilion played with the fictitious character of escape from everyday life into the total experience of a rave, whereas Jaap Kroneman responded to techno-aesthetics with precise but ironic statements. Bob & Roberta Smith created an environment of ‘fan-hood,’ wildly connecting art and music, appropriating songs with their own lyrics and under the slogan of ‘Rock’n’Roll,’ the new gardening promotes a rough and noisy form of amateurism. An audio archive by Rirkrit Tiravanija was presented in one of the smaller rooms of BüroFriedrich: 149 audio tapes recorded in a rehearsal studio, travelling art institutions all over the world. Sidney Stucki transformed the typical flyer with its ephemeral presence and esthetics within the context of the urban club music scene into a large-scale wall painting on the facade of BüroFriedrich announcing the art event, ‘Beige & Sneakers.’

Outsite Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ poster project ‘Untitled (Es ist nur eine Frage der Zeit/It’s Only a Question of Time)’ was presented as a billboard on Friedrichstraße. Like the works of Rineke Dijkstra and Rirkrit Tiravanija, this work was realized in cooperation with the Berlin Biennale.